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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27691265">Sometimes, a family is a constant</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jello12451/pseuds/jello12451'>jello12451</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sometimes, a family... [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, THIS AGED TERRIBLY KEKW, Tubbo needs a hug, does it count as character death if there's respawn, sibling dynamics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:29:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,163</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27691265</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jello12451/pseuds/jello12451</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tubbo was dropped off at the orphanage, Tommy was there. When Tubbo decided to run away, Tommy was there. When Tubbo swum across the waters and avoided the drowned, looking desperately for a home, Tommy was there. When Tubbo saw Phil for the first time, and when he was taken in, Tommy was there.</p><p>Tommy has always been there.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Toby Smith | Tubbo &amp; Everyone, Toby Smith | Tubbo &amp; TommyInnit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sometimes, a family... [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2008114</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>285</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sometimes, a family is a constant</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The 16th has left me hollow. Have a kinda wholesome installment-<br/>Haha, you thought. This is gonna be kinda sad. Sorry not sorry.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Tubbo was dropped off at the orphanage, Tommy was there. When Tubbo decided to run away, Tommy was there. When Tubbo swum across the waters and avoided the drowned, looking desperately for a home, Tommy was there. When Tubbo saw Phil for the first time, and when he was taken in, Tommy was there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tommy has always been there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo remembers the first time he ducked inside the makeshift hut of Phil’s family. It had initially felt like he was intruding, and Tommy knew it. Looking back, Tubbo will shake his head at how trusting he was, back then.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then again, Tubbo is not at all like any of his brothers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo is not Techno, who had been forced to wield a blade since he was young. He is not a piglin who roamed the nether for years before he found Phil, and he is not much good with weapons or swords.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo is not Wilbur, who had been forced to learn to survive in the wilderness. He is not a boy that had been on his own for a long time- Tubbo thinks that he was only alone for two or three days before he found Phil.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And most importantly, Tubbo is not Tommy. He isn’t a gremlin child who values two discs more than his life. Even though respawn is a given, it is painful and a long process of agony. Humans are meant to fear death, and fear it they do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Perhaps this is why he turns out so differently from the rest of his brothers. Although the other-three become war-hardened easily- even Tommy, the youngest, Tubbo still possesses some of his childhood innocence after the war for independence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That doesn’t mean he isn’t scarred from all that happens.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo remembers everything in perfect detail. The first time Tommy died. When he was cornered in his jungle base as he brewed potions and prepared for a war. He remembers their first battle, and the blood they shed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo hates it all. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>He hates their first victory, too, because that’s when Tubbo realized something was up with Eret. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s also the time Tubbo decided to trust Eret to handle himself, trust Eret to remain on their side, trust Eret to fight with them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>How wrong he was.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Eret, I farmed with you for hours!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo remembers the final control room with absolute clarity. He remembers dying, and he remembers the feeling of betrayal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But while Tommy is forced to grow up, Tubbo manages to hold on to the last shreds of his childhood innocence, and he preserves them like treasures. Which, in all fairness, they are. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Discs can be won back. Innocence cannot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo holds on to these last scraps, and builds L’Manburg with his brothers and his… nephew? He isn’t sure anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he holds on, and he builds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And as always, Tommy is by his side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>L’Manburg grows. Even though it is constrained to the four tall blackstone walls, it grows. More and more become her citizens, and they build within those walls.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo doesn’t like the walls, and yet at the same time he finds comfort in them. On one hand, they were a sore reminder of the builder once a citizen, now a king ruling his own castle. On the other, they protect him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He eventually makes peace with the walls.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t make peace with Eret. He doesn’t think he will.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything is fine for a while. There is relative peace for months, and Tubbo cherishes every moment of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, Wilbur decides that he must hold an election.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That to show everyone that he was worthy to be president, he would need to be elected into it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo agrees, but he disagrees, too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He becomes unsure of L’Manburg’s future, and he voices these concerns to Tommy. Tommy smiles and laughs it off, saying they’ll win for sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo isn’t so sure, but he trusts Tommy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even when Swag2020, Schlatt2020 and Coconut2020 get announced, Tubbo still decides to trust Tommy. </span>
  <span></span><br/>
<span><br/>
</span>
  <span>After all, through everything, Tommy’s always been there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The election results come in. It’s the day Tubbo feels fear- </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span> fear, for the first time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s the fear of hearing that Pog2020 had lost by one percent, against the coalition government of Swag2020 and Schlatt2020.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s the fear of hearing Wilbur say that they will inaugurate Schlatt as president, and not himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s the fear of hearing Schlatt’s speech.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>My first decree…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo wonders. He wonders where it all went wrong, why the elections voted for Schlatt and Quackity, why that one percent wasn’t Pog2020’s instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>As the president, of L’Manburg…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He wonders why Wilbur allowed the coalition, allowed them to rob the presidency from his hands. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The EMPEROR! Of this great country!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He wonders why he listened to Tommy.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Is to revoke!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>This is the fear of listening to Jschlatt’s speech, and from hearing the words…</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The citizenship of WilburSoot and TommyInnit!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>This is the fear of having the one constant in your life, taken away from you. Tubbo watches as Wilbur and Tommy struggle to run away, and watches as Wilbur takes an arrow and dies, and watches as they walk into his bunker.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He tries to sneak away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tubbo, come up here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo has no choice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo feels true fear when he types into his communicator furiously. When Tommy doesn’t respond to him, he is scared- heck he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>scared.</span>
  </em>
  <span> But all he can do is stand at Schlatt’s side, as his right hand man. The thought sickens him, but he does it anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t regret it, later, when Tommy replies to him- </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and when he is asked to be a man on the inside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s not the ideal arrangement in Tubbo’s selfish opinion. He wants to remain beside Tommy, wants to be his right hand man, wants to be sure that the constant in his life will not be taken away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Tubbo knows that this is a good opportunity to get information. So he does it. He agrees. He lurks in the cabinet, and silently notes everything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He also notices that Schlatt isn’t as bad as Wilbur said he was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Perhaps his methods are a bit… much, and perhaps his ideals are different, but Schlatt isn’t a bad guy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> rightfully elected, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo finds the moral dilemma confusing. Eventually, he seeks out Eret.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eret, who betrayed him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eret, who cost them the war.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eret, who sits in his lonely castle and looks remorseful for everything he’s ever done. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo seeks comfort, and Eret is more than happy to oblige. Their relationship isn’t fixed, but the first threads are starting to stretch across the void caused by Eret’s betrayal. The framework is thin and unsteady, but Tubbo is confident that they’ll weave a new bridge, though it will never be the same as the land that used to fill the chasm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It will </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> be the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nonetheless, Tubbo’s willing to try.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And to his relief, Tommy is still a constant despite his decision. Tommy tries as well, and extends those bare strings with a single wave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because Tommy has always been with him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whenever Tommy and Tubbo meet each other, they make a point to visit Niki’s bakery. Although Niki is forced to stay in Man-L’Manburg and pays heavy taxes for it, she still runs her bakery, and refuses to charge anyone for her baked goods. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo learns a lot when he talks to Niki.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He learns Eret betrayed them to bring an end to the war.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He learns Eret betrayed them not because of greed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He learns Dream just wanted peace.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He learns Eret and Dream alike regret.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This only strengthens Tubbo’s resolve to make things right with his former enemies. Tommy agrees, as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No matter what, Tommy will always support him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo justifies Dream’s actions. He justifies the stacks of TNT Dream hands over to Wilbur, even though the masked man himself won’t justify them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo knows Wilbur’s gone off the deep end. He knew that from the moment Wilbur was exiled, though he held onto the hope that Wilbur’s still in there somewhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They call for their brother. They call for the oldest, the blood god, Technoblade.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As soon as Techno joins the game, the world chat is immediately flooded with exclamation marks and question marks. Tubbo is relieved, however. He knows that though Phil won’t step in (perhaps for their own good, for them to learn that they need to solve their own problems and support themselves), Techno has always and will always be on their side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tommy trusts Techno. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo trusts the piglin as well, knowing that Techno has also been a constant in his life. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even now, when Wilbur is no longer who he used to be, when Wilbur is no longer a constant- Tommy and Technoblade are still in his life, and are still on his side. He is not alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whatever shreds of his innocence were left after the war of Independence completely </span>
  <em>
    <span>shattered</span>
  </em>
  <span> the moment he was enclosed in yellow concrete. The moment when Schlatt called him out for being a traitor. The moment when Technoblade was called up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo stares into Techno’s red beady eyes, and he pleads. He sends Techno a silent plea, asking for help.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But even then, he knows that his eldest brother can’t do anything. Techno’s eyes are sharp and calculating as he finds a way- any way- </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> to get both of them out of this situation, but both of them come to the same conclusion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Either Tubbo dies, or both Tubbo and Techno die to the crowd.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There is no third option.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo knows Tommy is watching from a nearby roof. That Wilbur had heard his code words. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Let the festival begin.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Wilbur won’t blow up the TNT. He hopes. Technoblade is still on the stage, and Tubbo would prefer for Techno to leave alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Technoblade is full of guilt as he loads his crossbow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tubbo- I’m sorry. I’m sorry- I’ll make this as painless and colourful as possible.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo feels the first one. Surprisingly, he’s alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He dies the second time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before all his senses fade, Tubbo hears Tommy scream and he smiles despite himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though he knows that Techno did not betray him, Techno is no longer a constant. The ground between them has a crack, and although it can be easily overstepped, it’s no longer the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It will never be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Tommy is still Tommy, and their bond is still the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo has never really known Fundy. All he knows is that he was once a part of L’Manburg, and joined Schlatt. That his loyalty to his father disintegrated along with the flag he had burned so proudly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He is surprised when the fox shows up at Pogtopia, but gives him a chance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They made the mistake of misunderstanding someone once. They won’t do it again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Tommy agrees. Tommy has always agreed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo’s heart is pounding as they head towards the final battle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s all or nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If they fail, Manburg blows up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If they win, they get back L’Manburg.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo tries not to think about the traitor Dream had warned them of.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It can’t be Tommy. Tommy has always been there- he can’t stop </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span>, during the crucial point of this story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo is relieved when Dream admits there was no traitor. When he no longer has to suspect the people he fought with, including Eret, the dethroned king.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He is overjoyed when Wilbur goes up to the podium, and seems like </span>
  <em>
    <span>himself</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He is surprised but happy when Tommy goes up, and shocked when he himself gets the presidency of L’Manburg.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Tommy has always been there. Tubbo can’t think of leading without him, and offers him vice president, which he happily accepts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And everything is fine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And everything goes horribly, horribly wrong. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Techno betrays them all. The ground between the brothers crumbles to dust, and Tubbo’s looking for Tommy, shouting for them to stay together like they’ve always done, and Wilbur’s gone, </span>
  <em>
    <span>where is Wilbur??</span>
  </em>
  <span> And-</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ph1lza joined the game.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo freezes at the message in world chat. It explodes in a variety of ways, everyone typing in shock, disbelief or fear. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His father is here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo barely has time to process that thought before the place blows up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo is alone, and yet he isn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He is alone with Tommy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’ve been betrayed by both of their older brothers. Tubbo doesn’t know if they can even mend their relationships anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their father is lost, having just killed one of his sons, and Wilbur- Wilbur </span>
  <em>
    <span>doesn’t respawn.</span>
  </em>
  <span> He </span>
  <em>
    <span>chooses</span>
  </em>
  <span> not to respawn, and Tubbo doesn’t know whether or not he should laugh in relief or cry in despair, and Technoblade is running around causing destruction, and-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tubbo doesn’t know a lot of things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He only knows one: </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tommy will always be by his side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(And if that fact is proven false, Tubbo will have absolutely no idea what to do.)</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Comments and kudos are what I live for<br/>My YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQHHEpmzIrOYyxX659-3tfA<br/>Join my discord too ^_^ https://discord.gg/HwbkW8jqrf</p><p>Edit: WELL THIS DIDN'T AGE WELL AT ALL, DID IT</p></blockquote></div></div>
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